Simplicity
Unsurprisingly, the primary crop that Apple Juice and his family grew was apples. A sizeable orchard was sprawled out across the hills behind his home, the trees neatly planted to form even rows. While nowhere near as big as some plots of land for crops, especially around larger cities that needed that sort of food production, the orchard wasn’t exactly small, either.
Scarlet took in a deep breath through her nose, savoring the fresh air and faint aroma of the apples in the trees. A warm breeze passed between the trunks, making the leaves rustle softly. A few birds sprang from their branch, sang at each other, and then touched down on another one not far away. Late morning sunlight streamed down between the branches, creating a series of mesmerizing stripes across the ground.
A loud thunk from her right drew her attention. Scarlet turned and saw Apple Juice by one of the trees a few rows over, having just bucked the trunk. The force of the kick had shaken the tree to its roots and sent every apple on its branches falling neatly into the buckets that were arranged at the base. A few went bouncing and rolling freely away, although Apple Juice did not seem to notice.
One of those apples came to a stop by Scarlet’s hoof. She eyed it for a second before smiling and lifting it in her magic. “Juice!” she called out to the stallion. She waited until he turned to face her before lightly chucking it at him.
“Woah!” he yelped, just catching the apple in his hooves. He looked down at it, then gave Scarlet a small smirk. “Ya tryin’ to ambush me or somethin’?” he asked.
Scarlet shook her head and drew closer. “No, but that one got away,” she replied before lighting up her horn again and pulling off the saddlebags she had on her back. “Your wife sent me. She asked me to bring you your lunch.”
“She did?” Apple Juice blinked, confused. He then looked up at the sky, and realization dawned on his face alongside the surface of his hoof. “Aw, hell. Lost track of time, didn’t Ah?”
“You could say that,” Scarlet replied before setting the bags down. “If you will permit me to be so bold, I imagine this is a somewhat common occurrence? Wind was rather casual about you losing yourself in the orchard.”
Apple Juice chuckled before reaching into the saddlebags. Inside was an assorted lunch comprised of a daffodil sandwich, a condensed apple pie, and a small block of hay. He smiled at the meal and withdrew the sandwich first. “Ah’m ashamed to admit it, but yeah, sometimes Ah get a bit… well, ‘into’ it,” he admitted before taking a bite.
Scarlet raised an eyebrow. “And that never causes you any trouble?”
“Sometimes,” Apple Juice answered after swallowing. “Ah just wanna make sure my family’s alright, that’s all. Makin’ sure Ah got a big enough crop to sell off, so we have the bits fer the winter is a big part of that.”
Scarlet hummed in understanding, turning and staring out into the rows and rows of trees. Even if the orchard was small, relatively speaking, when compared to her, it seemed to be an enormous task to harvest that many apples. Especially by kicking the trunks. “I think I understand. But this is a lot of ground for one pony to cover.”
“Sure is,” Apple Juice acknowledged with a slow nod of his head. “But my boy’s too little to be buckin’ apples, and Wind’s better at things with a gentle touch. Call us old fashioned if ya wanna.”
“As long as you’re all happy with your role,” Scarlet eventually said before turning back to face Apple Juice directly, her expression turning serious. “But... you never get any help with the harvest?”
Apple Juice shook his head. “Nah, not really. Sometime’s Wind tags along if Ah got a cold or somethin’, but that’s just to make sure Ah don’t hurt myself,” he said before taking another big bite from his sandwich.
Scarlet was quiet for a few seconds, wrestling with an idea in her head. Eventually, the idea won out over her reservations, and she met Apple Juice’s gaze. “Well, would you like some help?”
Apple Juice was clearly not expecting that question, as he suddenly let out a series of coughs. He put a hoof up to his lips once they died down to make sure his food stayed in his mouth where it belonged, then swallowed. He affixed Scarlet with an incredulous stare. “What?”
Scarlet took a step forward. “I am offering to help you out. I’m no farmer, but I imagine I can make myself useful.”
Juice stared at her, slack-jawed, for a short time. He composed himself and set the sandwich back into the saddlebags. “Ah appreciate the offer, miss, but Ah can’t be askin’ ya to do that. Yer still pretty tender from yer wounds, after all.”
Scarlet held her ground, her ears drooping. “Look, as long as I’m here, I want to make myself useful. We’re taking up space in your home and food on your tables as long as we’re under your roof. I want to make sure I do something to make up for that inconvenience, and helping out around the farm however I can seems to me like the best way to do it.”
To Scarlet’s surprise, Apple Juice let out a short, barking laugh at that. He walked up to her and gave her a good-natured clap on the shoulder. “See, that kinda attitude is what would normally make me say ‘yes’ to the offer,” he told her with a big smile. “But this ain’t a normal situation we’re in. Y’all brought Primrose back to us after lookin’ after her and keepin’ her safe. Ya saved her life, Scarlet. Lettin’ you and yer friend sleep under our roof and eat our food is how we are repayin’ you.”
Scarlet didn’t have an immediate rebuttal for that. She fell silent, her eyes lowering. As true as the farmer’s sentiment may have been, he was missing the fact that Scarlet had been the one to drop her guard long enough for Primrose to get hurt in the first place. She’d failed to do her job as Prim’s protector, and the foal had almost died as a result.
“...I still want to help,” Scarlet eventually insisted, her expression hardening. “If not to make up to you for the inconvenience, then to make it up to myself for failing to protect her when it mattered.”
Apple Juice hummed at that, withdrawing his hoof. “...Ya really think it was yer fault?” he asked quietly, his voice low.
Scarlet looked away, her ears drooping. “I… Maybe you won’t see it that way, but… I did fail her. She was injured on my watch. It was my job to make sure she was safe and protected, and she almost died because I wasn’t paying enough attention. There is nothing more to it than that. Nothing that matters, at least.”
“Bullshit,” Apple Juice shot down without missing a beat. Scarlet turned to face him again, her ears perking up in surprise. His expression had hardened, becoming stern. “She got hurt, yeh. Obviously, none of us wanted that to happen. Hell, maybe ya could have prevented it. Don’t matter now, though. What matters is that you brought her to us to save her. Far as Ah care, that more than makes up fer it.”
Scarlet went to offer up a counterpoint, but he silenced her by holding up a hoof. He slowly shook his head, his expression softening considerably. “Trust me, ma’am. Ah got a little boy of my own, remember? Ah hafta carry the responsibility of raisin’ him right all the time. It’s real easy to tell myself that Ah messed up, that Ah did somethin’ wrong whenever Ah see Star doin’ somethin’ dumb or stupid. And yeah, maybe part of it is mah fault…”
He looked directly into Scarlet’s eyes. “But Wind’s always the one remindin’ me that sometimes, there’s stuff that Ah just can’t control. All Ah can do is be there fer my boy when he needs me and try to steer him right when he goes wrong, and make up fer any mistakes that Ah made on the way. But you, Scarlet Frost, got nothin’ else to make up for. Ya saved her life. Ah can’t think of anythin’ more redeemin’ then that.”
The two fell into silence after that. Scarlet took a few steps back, her eyes wandering with indecision. After a few seconds, though, she was jarred from her trance when a bucket was set down by her hooves. Confused, she looked up and saw Apple Juice smiling back at her. “Now, all that said, Ah can tell that yer a stubborn filly. If ya wanna help so bad, then Ah guess Ah can humor you,” he said, flashing her a wink.
Scarlet’s muscles slowly began to relax, and she nodded gratefully. “Thank you. What do you need me to do?”
“Not much. Yer still recoverin’ from some nasty wounds, so Ah just want ya to place the buckets down and float ‘em into the wagon when they’re full. Cut a step outta my routine without strainin’ yerself too bad. Sound fair?”
Scarlet’s answer was to ignite her horn with magic and move the filled buckets of apples over to the wagon itself, settling them down in mere seconds.
Apple Juice’s smile grew. “Glad we’re at an understandin’.”
After Apple Juice finished off his lunch, the two set to work in the orchards. Scarlet did as instructed, her work mostly consisting of moving barrels around while Apple Juice bucked the trees and determined their course. Scarlet’s magic sped things along quite considerably, and more than once the farmer openly joked, saying something along the lines of ‘this must be cheatin’ or somethin’.’
It was a very monotonous and repetitive job, of that there could be no doubt. But despite how boring it may have seemed to an outsider, Scarlet got lost in the motions all the same. She wasn’t even sure what it was about the work that had her so enthralled. She wasn’t sure what it was that made her listen with rapt attention whenever Juice launched into a freeform lecture about what and what not to do when farming. She wasn’t sure why this boring, tedious task was so… relaxing for her.
It was only after they had been at it for two hours or so that it finally clicked with her. A memory from the early days after the war, when she was still early on in her pregnancy, came to her mind, making her briefly stop mid-task.
Her sudden halt did not go unnoticed. Apple Juice came by and lightly touched his hoof to her shoulder, drawing her out of her trance. “Hey, somethin’ wrong?”
Scarlet shook her head, smiling. “No, no. Nothing’s wrong. I was just remembering something, that’s all,” she said, putting the empty buckets down by the base of the next tree.
Apple Juice nodded and got into position. “That so? Mind if Ah ask about what?”
Scarlet hummed, looking up into the sky. “...you know that I fought in the war against Talonreach, right?” she asked after a moment, bitterness creeping into her voice.
Apple Juice hummed in acknowledgment before kicking the tree, sending the apples falling. “Aye, Ah know. Why?”
“...When I first got home after I was discharged, it was hard for me to adapt to being a civilian again,” Scarlet admitted, her shoulder slumping. “I had seen and done a lot of terrible things… and a lot of killing. Being surrounded by something normal again was just… hard to take in, at first. I had night terrors often, and found myself jumping at shadows, expecting a griffon ambush at a moment’s notice.”
Apple Juice said nothing. He simply stood still and listened as Scarlet went on.
“Eventually, though, I found work at a local academy. I became a librarian. Sorting books, returning them to the shelves, renting them out to students, slapping hooves over late returns, and the like. It was… just…” she closed her eyes and took a deep breath, a tiny smile growing on her face. “It was just so simple. I honestly kept thinking that I must have been missing something for a long time because there was no way I could be doing a job and have it be so… so… relaxing.
“But in the end, I think that’s part of why I wound up loving that job so much. It was just simple. There weren’t any high stakes, and I never once had to bust out my combat training when I worked there. I was just sorting and reading books…” she opened her eyes and let out a quiet chuckle. “After spending a good few years fighting on the frontlines of a bloody war, going to such a soothing line of work felt almost like heaven. My reward for finally getting out of there while I still had a life to live.”
Apple Juice’s face lit up with a warm smile. He adjusted his hat on his head slightly. “Well, shucks, that’s good to hear, Scarlet. Ah know that a lotta ponies who came home from that war could never really get back to a normal life… was almost like they forgot how to live.”
Scarlet hummed quietly, idly moving the now filled buckets to the wagon with her magic. “Well, I got lucky… and helping you out here on the farm is almost like a second wind of that same feeling,” she explained, her eyes shimmering slightly. “I’ve been on the road, fighting for my life and always looking over my shoulder ever since I met Primrose. To just help with something like this…”
Apple Juice came up to her side and gave her a light pat on the shoulder. “Well, Glad to know yer enjoyin’ yerself…”
Scarlet chuckled and brushed him off. She shook her head before giving him a meaningful smile. “Thank you for this… I think I needed to remember what the simple things were like before I forgot them again.”
Apple Juice nodded and made his way for the wagon. “Yer welcome. When all this business with Silent and the lamp is done, maybe you and that Lens fella could settle down somewhere quiet and you can have a simple life with him.”
Scarlet paused at that, her ears standing at attention. “A simple life… with Lens?” she echoed. She then let out a quiet laugh, letting her head hang. “Huh… You know, back when Lens and I got ourselves kicked out, I wanted nothing more than to settle down somewhere with him.”
“Somethin’ change?”
Scarlet sighed, her ears drooping. “...You could say that.”
“Ah won’t pry,” Apple Juice eventually said, hitching himself back up to the wagon. “Anyhoo, Ah think we’re just about ready to bring this load back to the barn. Why don’t y’all go on ahead and-”
“SCARLET! THERE YOU ARE!”
Scarlet jumped in her skin when Lens’ voice suddenly cut through the trees. Alarmed, she spun around and saw him sprinting madly through the trees for her. A lump formed in her throat and worm of anxiety wriggled its way into her heart. Had Silent found them? “Lens! What is it, what’s wrong?!” she called out.
Lens came to a sliding stop a few feet away, panting slightly. He pointed back towards the house. “It’s Primrose! She’s awake!”
Scarlet’s eyes widened. “What?! WHEN?!”
“Just a few minutes ago,” Lens answered. “She’s talking to Wind and Star right-”
Scarlet didn’t wait to hear the rest of it. She shot past Lens at a full sprint, disregarding the slight burning sensation in her forelegs from where she had been slashed before. She quickly left the two stallions behind, the trees of the orchard passing by in a wild blur. It wasn’t long before she barreled through the treeline and came up to the wall of the house. Her horn flared with magic as she came upon it before her entire body was enveloped in a burst of light.
She came out of the teleport in the living room, sliding for a few inches before coming to a stop. She spun on her hooves and threw open the door to the guest room. “Primrose!” she called out.
Windrain and Star looked over at her from their place by the filly’s bed, startled by her sudden appearance. Scarlet’s eyes drifted past both of them, however, settling on the tired-looking earth pony filly who was sitting up in the bed, staring back at her with relief. “...Scarlet,” she greeted with a worn-out smile, her voice quiet and weak.
Scarlet stood perfectly still as relief and joy flooded her veins. Her lip began to tremble, and a barely audible sound came from the bottom of her throat. She staggered forwards, never once taking her eyes off of Primrose.
Scarlet collapsed by the bedside before reaching out and drawing Primrose into a hug. She pulled the skinny foal close against her chest and cradled her in her hooves. She felt Primrose returning the embrace, and that motion alone drew a small whimper out of Scarlet. She closed her eyes as tears blazed hot trails down her cheeks and buried her face in Primrose’s messy mane.
“Primrose… oh my goodness… you’re alright…” Scarlet choked out, on the verge of sobbing as several days of tension and stress and anxiety finally got a chance to be let out.
Primrose hummed quietly into Scarlet’s chest fur, cuddling closer and basking in her body heat. “Mhmm… I’m okay…” she mumbled before shivering uncontrollably. “But… Silent got me…”
“I know, sweetie, I know,” Scarlet whispered, squeezing Prim up to her heart. “I’m so sorry… I won’t let that happen ever again, I promise.”
Primrose didn’t say anything else. She just stayed there, letting Scarlet hold her close while the unicorn mare wept tears of joy.
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Don't make promises you can't keep, Scarlet....
Primrose is awake this is the first steep on the long road of recovery.
i.pinimg.com/originals/5a/0d/7b/5a0d7bbd399ece2a70ade234abb11e96.jpg
The chapter title pretty much states what happens in this chapter which is fine by me.
And this is where they have a choice to make. With silent most likely believing he's killed primrose she could stay with the apples safe and sound without worrying about Silent. On the other hand, her mother entrusted her with the lamp's safekeeping. Safety or duty. What a choice.